The Press: Second the Motion

By an overwhelming vote (949-to-34), but with considerable reluctance, the Associated Press last week finally took in Marshall Field’s Chicago Sun. Nobody sang For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow. It was not that kind of an occasion.

The A.P. members felt put upon, and didn’t care if they showed it. The Justice Department had first twisted A.P.’s arm with an antitrust suit; then in June the Supreme Court had twisted it even further. Said the Court sternly: nobody must be denied A.P. membership just because a local rival fears the competition.

It was the Chicago Tribune’s newsprint Napoleon, Colonel Robert R. McCormick, who had done most to blackball Marshall Field’s rival Sun three and a half years ago, when the A.P. turned Field down, more than 2-to-1. Last week it was Colonel McCormick who did most to get Field in.* Bertie McCormick made it clear he was lumping it, but not liking it:

“It must be said for Mr. Field that the attack upon the Associated Press did not originate with him, but with the Department of Justice…. I was determined to resist what I considered coercion…. I was visited by FBI agents and threatened at a meeting probably such as the FBI-Gestapo never had before. . . .” At long last, the Colonel had hauled down his flag, hollered uncle, and surrendered, keeping his sidearms.

Asked a member from Somerset, Pa.: couldn’t we ding Marshall Field for some other reason than the effect of competition? Replied an A.P. lawyer: it was a little late to think up new reasons. Member McCormick summed it up: “The Court will hold us in contempt if we don’t elect the “applicants. Therefore. I second the motion.”

*Along with three other papers whose editorial policy suits the Colonel’s liver better: Hearst’s Detroit Times and Oakland Post-Enquirer; Cousin Eleanor Medill (“Cissy”) Patterson’s Washington Times-Herald.